League of Legends Spectator System: A Disappointing Feature for Esports Fans
Last week, I decided to watch the vod of Fnatic vs Koo tigers game 1 in the semi-finals and realized that League of Legends’ replay system is sorely lacking compared to Dota 2. As both games rely on their massive audiences for financial gain, it’s disappointing that Riot has such a good spectator client but lacks a replay system or in-game spectator client for LCS games.
While watching the Fnatic vs Koo game, I noticed that the camera hardly stayed on any player for more than a few moments. It constantly switched between players and teams, ensuring to catch any action happening on the map. However, this resulted in a lack of focus outside of team fights. For instance, by ten minutes into game 1, Febiven had almost a 30 cs lead over Kuro. But for someone trying to learn or study laning from professional games, it’s a mystery how he was able to dominate the lane to such a degree. The camera rarely stayed on a player or even a lane long enough.
Not only do professional games suffer from these flaws, but there are also issues with the Riot spectator system in general. There is no replay system, no tournament footage, and it’s impossible to see high-level solo q games outside of the feature list, which is region-locked. In contrast, games like Dota 2 and Counter Strike offer easy access to major events, download replays from previous tournaments, view the highest level of in-game solo q based on Dota’s matchmaking ranking system, and watch recent games played by you or your friends.
The Frustration of a Limited Spectator System
To put this frustration into perspective, Riot was one of the first companies to heavily invest in the competitive esports aspect of their game. They have created regularly scheduled leagues across multiple regions and continents. It’s annoying that despite the significant investment in production quality, there is no proper way to watch professional games within the game itself. This could be because LCS games are not played on the regular client but instead on a special LAN tournament client. However, with the improved servers and the tournament option in custom games, the question arises: why doesn’t Riot implement the tournament client features into the tournament mode of custom games?
Personally, what infuriates me is that I am aware of third-party viewing software that allows you to record games and view pros from other regions. The question is not whether this can be done, but why Riot is not doing it. Riot often boasts about how esports is growing into a legitimate sport and how they are leading the way. But it’s difficult to understand how they set the example when they are lagging behind in adding a basic feature.
In Conclusion: The Need for Improvement
In conclusion, I am unsatisfied with the League of Legends spectator system for professional games because there is no way to see them in-game, and the spectator client within the game is very limited. What frustrates me the most is that while Riot lacks an in-game replay system, there are already third-party software options available that fulfill this role. Riot needs to step up and enhance their spectator system to meet the expectations of their growing esports community.
League of Legends, spectator system, esports, replay system, professional games, spectator client, Dota 2, Riot, LCS games, third-party software